Blood and Blade
by Palladius
Summary: The Event shattered the empires of the Origin system, the Tenno evolving from a remnant clinging to survival to an enormous army as the Corpus discover a relic buried on Charon that unlocks an entire galaxy for them to exploit. In the midst of this chaos one Tenno clan and their unlikely allies fight to end the Corpus threat once and for all. WARNING: Graphic violence throughout.
1. Chapter 1

TIMELINE

The Event: Throughout the Origin system, a massive increase in Infested activity causes untold casualties. The sudden assault rips into the Grineer and Corpus, fragmenting the two empires.

E+1: The Tenno become abruptly involved in the conflict when several Grineer and Corpus fragments align into the Common Defence Alliance, or CDA, and offer a truce with the Tenno.

E+3: The Corpus battleship serving as the CDA's headquarters is destroyed by a rival faction of the Corpus. In retaliation the Tenno sabotage the engines of their vessels and set the power cores to overload, killing both the crews of the vessels and the Infested galleons sent to board them. This event prompts the rapidly disintegrating CDA to reform under the Lotus's leadership.

E+5: A high-ranking Corpus scientist and his entire research team defect to the CDA and are immediately put to work reversing the effects of Grineer genetic manipulation and Corpus brainwashing among CDA personnel.

E+9: The remnants of the Corpus fleet score a major victory against Infested ships over Neptune. Intimidated by their victory what little remains of the Grineer Empire aligns with the CDA.

E+11: The Infested destroy a Tenno colony on one of Saturn's moons. The attack convinces the CDA that no planet is safe from the Infested and begin looking into alternate solutions.

E+12: A breakthrough in the stealth technology used in Tenno boarding shuttles allows for the construction of far larger ships that are completely undetectable. In secret, the construction of several of these ships is approved.

E+14: The genetic reversal project successfully manages to bring a former Grineer marine in line with Tenno genetics and integrates him with a Warframe. The procedure is quickly replicated for former Grineer and Corpus. In order to prevent discrimination against former Grineer or Corpus census records are deliberately scrambled. In order to arm the rapid influx of new Tenno, many weapons and warframes are slated for mass production.

E+17: The Corpus remnant pull all their forces out of their fortifications at Neptune, abandoning a superior defensive position to concentrate their entire force around Charon. CDA recon teams are unable to ascertain what has fascinated the Corpus with the icy moon.

E+20: Recon probes show several Corpus vessels with battle damage inflicted by unknown ship-to-ship weapons. The CDA is unable to determine the source of these weapons.

E+26: The Lotus receives intel that suggests the Corpus are keeping a number of hostages on a cruiser orbiting Pluto and dispatches a Tenno strike team to recover them.

PROLOGUE

There had been twenty three Quarians aboard the Cyniad when it had been captured. As far as she knew, she was the only one left. It had taken her captors six Quarians to work out that they died if exposed to unfiltered air. The next eight had been dissected. Five had been vivisected. Two of them had been beaten to a pulp then raped to death, apparently for the amusement of the scientists. That left her.

From her cell, she could peer through the slit in the door and quite clearly see the table. She lived in fear of the table. It was surrounded by an enormous steel ring, the inside of which was coated in drills, saws and manipulative arms. She had watched twenty two Quarians die on that table over the past ... how long ago had her ship been captured? Three weeks? A month? She didn't know.

The Cyniad had made the foolish mistake of wandering into the warzone where the Turian Hierarchy and their Council allies were hard pressed to fight the Corpus, as these new aliens called themselves. Their vessel had been disabled and boarded by a small army of MOA. Tali reserved a special hatred for the MOA proxies. They reminded her too much of the Geth. Four of them were stationed around the prison/lab she was trapped in, completely oblivious to the litanies of abuse she intermittently directed at them.

She squeaked in terror as the door to the lab opened, three doctors walking through. She recognised them as the ones responsible for dissecting her friends. They were dragging what looked like an armoured man behind them, a nerve pulsar attached to his chest. Tali gulped as she fingered the device attached to her own chest. The small disc shaped device could create crippling pain at the touch of a button. She had learned that the hard way.

They hoisted the armoured man up, strapping her onto the table which activated with an ominous hum. Straining her ears, Tali caught a snatch of the words being spoken by the doctors.

"Zuta venti tré. Voor see gah, mo zukut tré mahàck."

"Voor vol noor venti see masd akétin. Mok Tenno venti tubaf, zurr."

"Mozhae-sû."

"See zurr."

The surgical cutlery closed in, the whining of drill bits not quite masking the screams. Closing her eyes, she tried to distract herself from the screaming by reciting everything she knew about the Corpus.

First things first, they were engaged in a war with the entirety of the Council, a war that had become locked in a bitter stalemate. The only reason there was still a Council was because the omnicidal Corpus had made the mistake of pissing off everyone at the same time. The Treaty of Fairxen had been repealed, the technologically superior Corpus quickly losing the advantage that enabled them to grab huge swathes of territory as the combined Council fleet fought them to a standstill. At last count the Turians alone had ninety four of the new four kilometre long Palaven-class assault dreadnought engaged on the Corpus frontline, the Batarians and Quarians tying for the second highest number of superdreadnoughts at fifty six each. Nothing quite like a superior species hell bent on destroying everyone to unite people. There was even talk of recruiting Krogan shock troops to combat Corpus armies.

Secondly, the Corpus were effectively a nation run by insane scientists. She had heard rumours of Corpus scientists performing brutal experiments on captives but before she had witnessed it first hand she hadn't believed the worst of the stories. However, she did know what had happened on Illium. The Corpus had managed to seize control of the planet for three months before a Turian/Batarian liberation fleet kicked them out. When the state the inhabitants of the planet were in was discovered, the Council approved the Corpus Prisoner of War Negation Act, stating that any captured Corpus was to be assumed to have committed war crimes and summarily executed once they had outlived their usefulness.

Thirdly, the Corpus were a levo mammalian species, physiologically similar to both Quarians and Asari, but with extensive cybernetics throughout their bodies. All bore the signs of extensive mental reconditioning and exhibited a near fanatical obsession with uncovering new technology. That was about the sum of it.

The screaming only got louder, Tali reflexively clamping her hands over her ears even though the gesture had no effect in her exosuit. She couldn't fight the swell of panic she felt whenever she heard the table in use, knowing that soon it would be her on there. In some of her more morbid moments she briefly wondered what they would choose to do to her. Force her to inhale pure carbon dioxide then chop up her corpse? Cut her open and poke round her insides while she could still scream? Or perhaps just strap her down, rape and torture her for laughs? She knew they were equally capable of all three.

Mercifully, the screaming stopped. The doctors didn't seem too happy about it, their voices raised in anger.

"Voor mil krinné! Moch Tenno voor see gahrée zan chyà!"

"Vo torie, zurr. Vo ná mich tée."

"Gaska goch'tennérée!"

The first one, apparently the leader, heard her sniffles because he stormed over to the cell, slamming his hand on the door.

"See hu!"

She screamed and jerked away from the door, squeezing herself into the corner of the cell as the door opened, admitting the livid Corpus doctor.

"Graka vich!"

She screamed again as the Corpus doctor slammed a foot into her gut, then yanked on her hood and sent her sprawling on her back. She choked down vomit as a heavy boot stomped down on her left hand, a sickening crunch sound just discernable over the fresh wave of pain shooting up her arm. She rolled onto her side, curling around her shattered hand as the Corpus sent his foot sailing into her chest, another crunch heralding the snapping of ribs. A mixture of stomach acid and violet blood coated the inside of her mask, the auto-cleaning systems whisking the foul smelling stuff away and expelling it through her mask's venting chamber. She assumed a foetal position, screaming and sobbing as the savage scientist kept a steady rhythm with his boot, slamming her shins, her bottom, her back, even her head, making her vision swim and double.

She wasn't sure how long the beating went on, or exactly when the Corpus produced a shock stick, or how many times he broke a finger or toe in his frenzied assault. All she did know was that when the doctor calmed down and threw her back in her cell she was lucky to be alive. And she wished she was dead. She lay curled on the floor, sniffling and weeping as her broken body assaulted her equally broken mind with pain from her myriad broken bones and bruising flesh. Her suit VI crashed, meaning at one point she almost drowned in the blood she was coughing up, managing to manually vent her mask with a pained shriek as broken fingers scrabbled over the buttons.

She slipped into unconsciousness, her tormented mind filled with images of violet blood, enraged doctors and cold metal tables.

###

Four tiny little arrowheads approached the Corpus cruiser, vectoring in to latch onto the hull. Lasers scraped holes in the armour plate, four armoured figures dropping into the vessel. The Tenno moved silently, unslinging weapons, subconsciously moving to cover one another with their fire arcs.

The leader, a Nyx warframe, motioned with her hand, her other hand holding her Latron marksman rifle. Like the rest of her clan, her armour was coloured a deep black, her with acid green highlights, her eyeless mask tilting as she regarded her surroundings and companions. An Ember, a Volt and a Frost. Her hand gesture was clear.

Move up.

Nodding their assent, her assault team moved up in silence, weapons sweeping the area for any Corpus. Foolish in their overconfidence, the Corpus cruiser had been allowed to pass behind Pluto in its orbit. They had a window of about an hour in which the ship couldn't call for help, comms blocked by the icy planetoid. It was a window of opportunity the CDA were all too happy to take advantage of.

The Nyx slipped into the first room, signalling her companions to wait. Her Shade sentinel momentarily cloaked her, allowing her to roll invisible between two stacks of crates. She unsheathed her Ether Dagger, the Ether Sword it was twinned with staying on her back as she pounced on the nearest Corpus. The unfortunate crewman didn't even have time to react as she plunged her dagger into his spine, neatly severing it and instantly killing him. Dragging the body out of sight, she moved again, the Shade rendering both her and it invisible as she slid to another position, grabbing and executing another unsuspecting crewman as he passed her position. She wielded her Shade like an extension of her body, the little drone peeping round the corner and relaying the information to her mind. Three Corpus Crewmen and two MOA. She would have to take them all out before any one of them could reach the alarm panel on the far side of the room solo.

The thing about the Nyx was that solo wasn't a word in her vocabulary. Whenever she had enemies, she had allies. They just needed a little convincing. Summoning some of the energy stored in her Warframe's reactors, she mentally reached out and seized control of the crewman closest to the alarm panel. The comtrolled crewman turned his Dera plasma rifle on the MOA standing next to him as the Nyx stepped out of cover, sending her Ether Dagger spinning through the air to catch another crewman through the vision slit in his boxy helmet. Even as the first MOA and the first crewman fell, the remaining Corpus reacted, the other MOA turning its own plasma rifle on the controlled crewman as the other crewman rushed for the alarm console. The Nyx flicked her wrist almost contemptuously, sending a burst of psychic bolts at the crewman that ripped into his mind and scrambled it permanently and terminally. Even as the second MOA finished off the controlled crewman Nyx was in motion, her Ether Sword slashing upwards and cleaving one of the MOA's legs off, finishing it off with a stab through the CPU that killed the robot for good. She pinged her teammates, the other three warframes entering the room, completely silent as they examined her handiwork for a second, then moved on to the next room.

After breezing through a lone MOA that didn't even have time to turn around, Frost rolled his shoulders and gripped both sides of a wall panel, tearing the thing off and allowing the team to access the maintenance crawlways. The four Warframes squeezed through the narrow tunnels, bypassing several rooms, exiting the crawlways in a large, cavernous chamber crisscrossed by gantries. Several Corpus crewmen and a small army of MOA turned to face them.

Reflexes boosted by genetic modification, the Tenno reacted first. Ember and Frost charged, her wielding a Heat Sword and him with a Gram heavy sword as Nyx and Volt both took a knee and opened up with their Latron and Burston respectively. By the time the Corpus opened fire Ember was among them, quickly vanishing into a self-generated firestorm as Frost smashed into the flank, bisecting one or two crewmen with each swing as both Nyx and Volt crouched behind Volt's electric shield and put bullets in any Corpus that entered their sights. Nyx shifted her aim, putting two bullets in the head of a crewman going for an alarm panel, only to have alarms blare anyway as another Corpus was slightly more successful in alerting the others.

Beneath her helmet, Nyx rolled her eyes as she shot the foot off a Shockwave MOA, unbalancing the unit and making it drop to the floor for Ember's heat sword. Things just got more interesting.

The last of the initial group fell to a triple tap from Volt as the Lotus came on the comm.

"Team One, keep moving. Team Two has intercepted the reinforcements."

Team Two consisted of a Rhino, a Banshee, a Loki and a Saryn. They were part of a different clan, their armour bright red instead of midnight black. It was rare for two clans to work together but the clan Nyx belonged to was far too small to take on the operation solo.

Waving them on, Nyx led the way into the lab area. The first thing she noticed were the bloodstains. The dark red Human ones were fresh. Under them, however, was a good deal of purplish bloodstains. The four Tenno exchanged glances. Their interest was piqued.

"Search the cells for any captives and get them to the extraction point. Also, hack the lab terminal and extract the datamass for analysis."

Nyx waved them to their individual tasks. Frost stood watch at the door while Volt accessed the Corpus databank. Ember combed the upper level of the cell block while Nyx herself took the lower level.

Pacing around the cell block, she hacked what doors she could and smashed in what doors she couldn't. She was about halfway through when a sound caught her ears. The sound of quiet sobbing, occasionally interrupted by a hacking cough that telegraphed that whoever was making the noise had suffered serious physical trauma. Following her ear, she tracked the sound to the central cell on the far side of the room.

One quick system hack later and the door slid open, allowing Nyx to cautiously step into the cell, twin Furis machine pistols in her hands. The source of the sobbing turned out to be huddled on the floor. Just looking at the young girl in the strange suit, she could see the Corpus had been to town. Her hands and feet had been hacked and mutilated into grotesque forms, the remaining fingers broken in several places, and her legs had been snapped into a shape resembling dog legs. Despite herself, Nyx felt bile rising in her stomach. She would never get over how callously brutal the Corpus could be.

Reaching out a hand, she touched the girl's shoulder, breaking the rule of silence to offer comforting words.

"Hey. Hey, can you hear me? We're going to get you out of here, just hold on."

The mutilated girl just curled in further on herself, making a low keening sound. Sighing, Nyx slid her arms under the girl, picking her up bridal style. The girl didn't even seem to be aware of what was going on.

Nyx emerged from the cell, the other three Warframes wordlessly sharing her anguish at the state of the girl in her arms. That anguish quickly hardened into anger.

A semi-conscious hostage in her arms, Nyx couldn't take part in any of the fighting on the way back, shadowing the other three Tenno as they made their way back to the extraction point. Frost in particular had worked up a good head of mad, unleashing flurries of bolts from his Boltor and staking Corpus to the walls then cleaving through them with his enormous Gram while Ember and Volt kept the heat off him with Braton and Burston respectively. Nyx rounded a corner to see her three compatriots bogged down in a large force of Corpus. She quickly analysed the odds. They'd be fine. She looked down at the strange purple suited girl cradled in her arms as with a crackle Volt sent a blast of electricity through the remaining Corpus, overloading their weapons and deep frying them in their rubber jumpsuits.

Frost signalled her to move up and she broke cover, sprinting towards the extraction point. Ember rattled off a burst on her Braton, blowing up a security camera as the warframe cradle of her shuttle came into view. Tapping in an override code, she loaded the girl into the cradle which revolved and deposited her in the body of the ship.

The four Tenno gathered, exchanging fist bumps as they stepped into their warframe cradles. A job well done.

Their boarding shuttles punched away from the cruiser, soaring away. Moments later Team Two extracted from the other side of the ship, heading off on a different vector. Moments after that the nuclear bomb Team Two had planted detonated, the Corpus Cruiser replaced by a rapidly expanding ball of debris. Looking at the mutilated girl lying on the cot in her ship, it wasn't nearly as satisfying as Nyx had expected.


	2. Chapter 2

The void key built into Nyx's ship rippled, tearing open a deep roiling blue portal that the tiny arrowhead plunged through. When it emerged from the crippling disorientation of void travel she grunted in pain and tried to ignore the fresh wave of sobs from the mutilated girl. She could still remember the agony that had accompanied her first use of a void key. Eventually she became desensitised to that particular brand of agony but she could still remember her first time. It had hurt.

She forced herself to ignore the girl's whimpering as her ship docked in the dojo's hangar. Whispering what she hoped were soothing words, she picked up the mutilated girl and stepped out of her ship, breaking into a sprint as she headed for the medical bay.

Passing out of the semicircular hangar, she found herself in the entrance hall, the dark neo-gothic temple decor flashing by as she sprinted the length of the hall, passing through the door at the other end and into the Grand Hall. The cavernous chamber was quickly filled with the sound of armoured feet slapping on stone floor as she took a left, sprinting down the corridor to the medical wing.

Bursting through the door, she set the girl on a bed and tapped a button, bringing the dojo's AI to awareness.

"Welcome back, Tenno Shepard."

She removed her crested helmet, allowing bright red hair to cascade down her back. Better the girl see a human face than a blank mask. She reached out and, after a moment of feeling around the unfamiliar catches, removed the girl's mask.

Her first thought was how stunningly pretty the girl was. Her second thought was that she clearly wasn't human.

"Uh ... EDI?"

There was a momentary pause as even the AI was dumbstruck.

"A full body scan is required to determine the extent of her injuries."

Still barely able to believe it, Shepard began peeling away the alien girl's suit.

###

Tali's awareness was reawakened by the feeling of cold air blowing across skin that had never felt cold air before. She started, tried to wriggle out of the grip of whoever was taking off her suit but strong hands held her down. She cracked open her eyes to see a female Corpus with flame red hair looking down at her, saying something in the Corpus language. Naturally, she only struggled harder.

The Corpus shouted something over her shoulder and an enormous tank in heavy black armour with white highlights strode into the lab they had moved her to, grabbing her forearms and pinning them either side of her head as the torso section of her suit was pulled off. Her knee-jerk reaction was to try and cover herself but she couldn't while held down. One of her arms was yanked straight to the side, the sleeve being tugged off in one motion, then returned to its previous position as the other sleeve was removed as well. She tilted her head and tried to bite the fingers that held her down but the sudden movement brought on a bout of dizziness as her boots were tugged off, then her leggings and finally her undershorts. Her struggles renewed but she could feel her injuries sapping her strength. Really, all she could do was non-verbally express her displeasure as the two armoured forms shifted her to a table with what looked like a rectangular lamp hanging above it and started doing up leather straps, completely immobilising her. She couldn't even tilt her head. Summoning the last of her strength, she snarled out a hated sentence.

"Fuck you Corpus. Just kill me and get it over with."

Then she passed out.

###

"Poshel na'khuy Corpus. Prosto ubeyte menya, i pokonchim'setim."

Shepard turned, one brow raised. It was the first time she had heard the alien speak what was undoubtedly her native language. It sounded almost like the Grineer language, but with a far more melodic, lyrical flow to it and occasionally interspersed with a couple of sounds halfway between a buzz and a click that she was certain no Human-derived life form could make. When she looked back the girl was unconscious.

"You get some rest James, make sure Ash and Kaidan aren't blowing anything up. I'll stay here and wait for the tests to finish."

James removed his helmet, revealing his mohawk and neck tattoos.

"You sure, Lola?"

"I'm sure."

He paused for a moment.

"Alright. See you later."

She absent-mindedly waved at James as she examined the unconscious alien strapped to the scanning table. Her form was surprisingly humanoid, almost with an elfin delicacy about her yet a sense of wiry strength in her lithe arms and legs. She was slender yet perfectly formed, smoky grey skin shot through with faintly bioluminescent silver lines, slightly Oriental features framed by ebony locks of silky hair.

"Scan complete, Tenno Shepard."

Forcibly tearing her eyes from the alien, she looked up at EDI's holographic avatar.

"What have you found?"

"The data packet recovered from the Corpus ship had significant information on the anatomy of this species, referred to as Quarians. Based on the degree of her injuries I estimate that she has less than twelve hours to live."

Shepard sat sharply upright.

"Clarify."

"Her immune system is compromised and several of her wounds are infected. Our medical equipment cannot operate on her, her physiology is too different, and based on these records any attempt to administer antibiotics could cause an allergic reaction."

Shepard's hands curled into fists.

"Unacceptable. What course of action carries the highest chance of survival?"

The AI was silent for a moment.

"There is one course of action that will give her a chance at survival. You're not going to like it."

"Anything."

There was another brief pause, EDI trying to process the ramifications of what she was about to say.

"She carries Orokin interface genes."

EDI was right. Shepard didn't like it. But it was the only way.

"Alright. Prep the Mag for integration."

###

The Hierarchy assault dreadnought Proud Shield of Palaven fired its plasma torpedoes, the enormous blue bolts of destruction taking almost three seconds to traverse the distance between it and the Corpus battlecruiser it was targeting despite travelling at near half lightspeed. The target vessel, already with shields down and armour compromised by a wave of frigates, never stood a chance. The missiles ripped through the Corpus hull, splitting the ship in half even as the Proud Shield slewed round to bring her forward batteries to bear on the next target.

The Palaven class, and her smaller cousin the Menae class heavy cruiser, were the only ships in the Turian arsenal considered to be superior to their Corpus equivalent. The vessels were designed, ironically, using technological breakthroughs provided by a small fleet of captured Corpus ships and imcorporated all the goodies the Corpus brought, combining with the mastery of element zero only hundreds of years of experience could bring to boost their reverse engineered Corpus tech far beyond the wildest dreams of its creators.

On the bridge of the Proud Shield, Admiral Adrian Victus crossed his arms as he watched his ship's forward battery spit out another volley of plasma torpedoes, the four projectiles splitting off to each track a different Corpus destroyer. He heard a familiar set of footsteps coming up behind him and tried not to show the shit eating grin his face reflexively reassembled itself into in the presence of his marine commander. Popular among subordinates, demonised by superiors and an inherent need to do anything but stand on ceremony - he and Commander Garrus Vakarian were often jokingly referred to as long lost brothers.

"These Corpus never learn, do they. This is the third time this month they've tried to run Relay 314."

Victus chuckled and shook his head.

"They never do. All dreadnoughts, focus barrage on this target on three."

At the end of the countdown all six dreadnoughts in the task force assigned to protect Relay 314 fired their main weapons at the target in question, twenty four plasma torpedoes bracketing the unfortunate Corpus battleship and dropping its shields in one blow. Nodding in satisfaction, Victus tasked three bomber squadrons to take out the now defenceless battleship, turning his attention back to Garrus.

"I don't think this is going to be enough. Look how far we've come in just the last six years alone, four kilometre long dreadnoughts, plasma weapons, us fighting alongside Quarian and Batarian fleets and still the Corpus are slowly pushing us back. Sure we've fought them to a standstill in places, pushed them out of others but mathematically they're taking more territory than they're losing. We need a game-changer."

###

Shepard sat in the chair watching as the modified Mag warframe slowly integrated the wounded girl inside it. At one point she tensed as from behind the Mag's helmet issued a bloodcurdling scream, the pain of the symbiotic connection not something she ever wished to revisit, yet it was necessary to save the girl's life. Then she lay still for almost twenty minutes as an increasingly worried Shepard resisted the urge to interfere. Finally she stirred.

Her head tilted minutely, as if examining her surroundings. Then she caught sight of Shepard and scrambled backwards, letting out a panicked yelp as she tumbled over the edge of the table and crawled crabwise along the floor, pushing herself into the nearest corner. Shepard didn't blame the girl - she had read the recovered Corpus datamass detailing the sick pseudo-science they had been doing and punched a dent in the medical room's wall. No wonder she was traumatised. Understanding that hearing Orokin, the same language the Corpus spoke, would unnerve her even further, Shepard slowly approached, hands held out placatingly as she made what she hoped were soothing noises.

"Keelah! Ostav'menya va pokoye Corpus! Ne prikasaya komne!"

Ignoring what was no doubt some colourful language in the alien's native tongue, she tapped a button on her wrist. The girl screamed softly as a hologram of a Corpus trooper appeared in the room. Shepard made sure she had the girl's attention before trying to communicate.

She pointed at the hologram.

"Corpus."

Then she pointed at the girl.

"Quarian."

Then she pointed to herself.

"Tenno."

She repeated a couple of times, then sat back on her haunches as the girl in the Mag warframe looked at her. Eventually she spoke, raising one finger to point at Shepard.

"Tenno. Ne Corpus?"

Taking a wild guess, Shepard nodded.

"Ne Corpus."

The alien sat down heavily, cradling her head in her hands and speaking to herself in her language.

"Y'a soboden. Koncheno, y'a soboden. Ne veryu."

Then she promptly burst into tears, making Shepard rush over to her and embrace her. The Quarian wrapped her arms around Shepard, clinging on as she wept.

After what seemed hours but couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes, the alien stopped crying, sniffling slightly as she picked herself up off the floor. Shepard couldn't help but be fascinated by the way her digitigrade legs bent as she moved. The girl pointed to herself.

"Tali."

After a moment Shepard repeated the gesture.

"Tali."

Tali nodded, then tilted her head and pointed at her. Taking the hint, she gestured at herself.

"Ellen."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I've edited a couple of weapon names to stay in keeping with the whole alien language thing. Akethak = Ether Daggers

A/N 2: Free plug to Warframe Effect, the best ME/Warframe crossover out there. Seriously, go check it out. Anyone wants to play a couple rounds Warframe or ME3 multiplayer PM me.

###

Tali's entire family had been on the Cyniad when it had been destroyed. She quite literally had nothing left. So when, through a combination of enthusiastic gestures and doodled pictures, the Tenno asked her to join their unit, the answer was surprisingly easy to give.

She ran. She jumped. She slid along the floor. She shot and snuck and hacked and stabbed and crushed. Slowly but surely, she learned to be a Tenno.

The first thing Ellen taught her was sidearms. She had held up a pistol with an ornate handguard and twirled it in her hand a couple of times, then offered it grip first to Tali.

"Lato."

Tali held up the sidearm, examining it. Although the handguard was clearly designed for five fingered hands her three fingers were able to fit around it quite comfortably.

"Lato," she repeated, hoping she had got that right. In response Ellen nodded and gestured downrange, miming firing a pistol one handed. Tali aimed the pistol, putting her left hand on the base of the handle to stabilise it as she had been taught only to have Ellen tut disapprovingly and quite forcefully mime firing one handed, her left hand behind her back for good measure. Shrugging, Tali took her hand off the base of the grip, aiming one handed.

Unused to the one-handed grip, she missed the first couple of shots but quickly grew used to the feel of the weapon, her accuracy improving greatly as she settled into a steady rhythm. After a while Ellen held up a hand, drawing her attention, then mimed switching the gun from her right to her left hand. Frowning behind her mask, Tali followed suit, attempting to fire left-handed. She landed some hits but she was nowhere near as effective with her left as she was with her right. After considerably shorter time Ellen motioned for her to stop, handing her another identical pistol.

"Aklato." She mimed firing a pistol in each hand, then motioned for Tali to try. She took aim and started firing, alternating weapon every shot. Although her accuracy was almost perfect with her right hand, her left hand still missed almost half the shots she took. After a while Ellen had taken the pistol out of her left hand, just leaving her to fire right-handed. Tali wholeheartedly agreed.

She spent much of the first week learning the ins and outs of Tenno sidearms. As well as the Lato, she was educated on the Bolto, the Bronco, the Furis and the Lex, as well as experimenting with weapons such as the Vasto, Sicarus, Viper and Gremlins. She also tried her hand at the Hikou throwing stars and Kunai throwing knives, but quickly decided she preferred actual firearms. In return, with aid of a paper notepad and a lot of gesturing she taught Ellen and the other Tenno about the Council, the Protheans, Mass Relays and the Corpus war thus far. Fortunately for her they were able to fabricate dextro foodstuffs, though she didn't eat anything for two days while Ellen convinced her it was safe to remove her helmet and eat without getting an infection.

Another memorable event was on her sixth day with the Tenno, when Ellen led her down to the dojo's sparring ring, enthusiastic hand gestures leading Tali to believe she was going to watch a swordfight. What she certainly didn't expect was what she actually saw.

James and Ashley, as she'd come to know them, were slowly circling each other, both in full armour. Come to think of it, she hadn't yet seen any of the Tenno remove any part of their armour that wasn't their helmets. Kaidan was already sitting on the sidelines, watching them as Ellen and Tali took seats beside him. Ellen pointed at the weapon in James's hands, an enormous rectangular slab of metal that looked like it could cleave through a frigate's hull.

"Gram."

Then her finger shifted to point at the two smaller blades held in Ashley's hands.

"Akethak."

Nodding her understanding, Tali watched as the two combatants circled one another, occasionally feinting but never outright engaging. Even with her untrained eye Tali could tell what would go down. James would be depending on his strength, putting punishing force behind every blow whereas Ashley would stay mobile and try to whittle him down with small wounds while staying out of the way of his enormous weapon.

James held his weapon vertical with a two handed grip, stopping his circling and instead turning on the spot, keeping himself facing Ashley as she paced around him, twirling the dagger in her left around her fingers in an impressive display of dexterity while keeping the one in her right hand raised in a guard position.

She made the first move, sprinting towards her heavily armoured opponent and leaping over his ponderous swing as she struck downwards with both blades. To her amazement James dropped his sword, instead snapping his hands upwards so quick she could barely follow his movements and grabbing Ashley's wrists in a death grip. In that position her speed and agility were negated, James controlling the fight completely with his superior strength. He flipped, trapping Ashley underneath him and used his heavy helmet to literally headbutt her into submission. Ellen turned to Tali, her eyebrow arched as if to say, 'you see?'. Tali saw. Pulling out her notebook, she flipped to the page where she was writing a semi-serious list of rules entitled 'Tenno Doctrine'. To that she added 9. Play to your strengths and 10. Be unpredictable.

She watched a couple more fights between James and Ashley, quickly learning that James was the living embodiment of Rule 10. He trounced Ash almost every time, pulling all manner of crazy tricks to keep the upper hand. She could see Ashley was getting frustrated.

Ellen chuckled as she tapped Ash on the shoulder, taking her place in the ring with a long double bladed staff-like weapon she called 'Orthos'. She twirled the weapon a couple of times in her hands then rolled it over the back of her shoulders, demonstrating a seamless familiarity with the weapon that overawed Tali. She honestly had no idea how she was expected to match that level of skill. Then Ellen struck.

Tali didn't even see her move. One second she was facing down James, the next second the bulky Frost warframe was flat on his back, his Gram skidding away across the sparring ring floor as the blade of the Orthos rested ever so gently above his heart.

After spending almost the whole day watching the Tenno spar, Ellen split up her days into five sections. The first was sidearms, then melee combat. After lunch she would go down to the firing range to try her hand at the big guns, then train in stealth and agility on the obstacle course. Her evenings were consumed with learning everything she could about Tenno and Corpus technology.

She had to admit, her favourite part of the training regimen was the big guns, namely because Ellen set up the firing range to project holographic Corpus targets that moved and shot back just like the real thing. Gunning them down by the dozen was surprisingly therapeutic. There were literally dozens of guns to choose from, ranging from the compact Braton assault rifle to the enormous Gorgon heavy machine gun, but she quickly found her favourite to be the Sobek assault shotgun. The weapon had a brilliant feel to it and left Corpus in messy puddles of blood although the over-complicated reload procedure she could live without. Having enjoyed using the Sobek she eagerly grabbed the Hek heavy shotgun only to be sent flying across the room by the recoil as Ellen dissolved into paroxysms of mirth.

On day ten, she was introduced to the abilities of her warframe. The armoured shell was apparently able to do ... something. She had no idea what 'vee elko magàna tus matul voor emezées' meant, but it quickly became apparent that her abilities were rather impressive. After several aggressive hand gestures from Ellen, Tali had reached out to the nearest training dummy, closed her fist and jerked it sharply upwards, squeaking in alarm as the dummy was ripped from its stand and deposited in a heap at her feet. Over the next couple of days she learned to boost and drain shields, attract bullets to a target and she even imploded a training dummy.

When she wasn't training she usually spent her time tinkering with whatever tech she could scrounge around the dojo. Although she couldn't hold a conversation and wasn't yet comfortable removing her helmet around anyone except Ellen, the Tenno did everything so sociably she couldn't have been lonely if she tried. It didn't matter who she used to be. She was set on the path to becoming a Tenno.

###

Ellen took a knee and bowed her head as the hologram appeared in the dojo's comm room. The Lotus's eyes were hidden behind her mask yet she couldn't help shake the feeling the woman was staring right through her.

"Report, Tenno Shepard."

She stood, still keeping her head bowed as a show of respect.

"Tali is integrating well into the unit despite the language barrier. She's already mastered almost every sidearm I can find and she seems to have fallen in love with the Sobek shotgun. Her melee is sound but unremarkable but her real strength is tech. I had EDI construct a Corpus type cipher ten times more advanced than any we've come across and she cracked it within ten seconds, plus she's already been tinkering with several devices. The mods she's been putting in her Sobek are really quite amazing."

The Lotus didn't outwardly react aside from shifting her hands to clasp them behind her back.

"Thank you, Tenno. I was asking about the intelligence on this coalition of aliens."

Ellen took an involuntary step back. The ice in the woman's tone put James's Avalanche to shame.

"My apologies, Lotus. From what we've been able to tell, this community of aliens were initially politically divided into several groups before the arrival of the Corpus, who they united to oppose. The Corpus at best estimate control around fifty star systems, all with resources and facilities comparable to the Origin system, and despite the massive increase in production and the acquisition of recruits the coalition of aliens are holding their own."

"Fascinating. How did the Corpus manage to leave the system?"

Ellen paused as long as she dared to collect her thoughts.

"An artefact left by what she calls the Protheans. We don't know if that's her word for the Orokin or a different species altogether. From what we understand it's some sort of structure that can instantaneously transport a spacecraft to a fixed location in space. I personally believe that the Corpus unearthed one of these structures on Charon."

The Lotus once again didn't move aside from a slight shift in her shoulders.

"Yes, that's a reasonable theory. You are dismissed, Tenno Shepard."

The hologram disappeared but did nothing to dispel the feeling of fingers tickling up and down her spine Ellen got whenever she talked to the Lotus.

###

_They came into her cell, two of them, punching her in the gut and winding her, then dragging her out into the lab. She tried to scream but couldn't, instead making a dry wheezing sound as they manhandled her struggling body onto the table, clamping thick metal restraints over her body as the drills and saws whirred and circled her immobilised form. Then hard, uncaring hands tearing her suit, leaving it hanging in tattered shreds, her throat already starting to close up as one of them forced his way between her thighs, screams turning into breathy gasps of terror, vision swimming, body screaming for oxygen as she was beaten, cut and violated over and over and over ..._

She woke up gasping, sitting bolt upright in the pallet provided for her to sleep on, her heart pounding in her chest as she felt the familiar dampness of tears on her cheeks. She didn't tell the other Tenno about her nightmares - she wasn't sure if she was able to tell them even if she wanted to - fearing how they would react. She knew that although she had been rescued, a part of her was still trapped on the Corpus ship inventing ever more elaborate torments nightly based on what she had seen done to her friend's and family. The table dominated her subconscious, so much so that when she looked at Tenno script, the glyph that looked like a circle around a rectangle made her have to fight down a panic attack.

Gasping, she stumbled into the dining hall, fumbling open the catches on her helmet and stumbling over to one of the fountains that lined the room and splashing her face with cool crystal water, the cold shock washing away the remnants of the fear that had gripped her and instead bringing a deep, soul-crushing grief that drained her, making her slump to the floor and bury her face in her hands. Every time she woke in the middle of the night it rattled her, made her scared of failing the Tenno. Slowly but surely, her nightmares were eating away at her.


	4. Chapter 4

The dojo was enormous, Tali quickly learned. From the hangar, the vast semicircular room where the infiltration shuttles docked, extended a long corridor that led to a grand entrance hall with a two tiered balcony over the ground floor, the calming blue ambiance, glass guardrails and white trees concealing a strong defensive position from which a defending force could cut down any attackers. On the opposite side of the grand hall was a corridor that led to a cross intersection, each junction branching off into a long corridor. The left led off to the research wing, containing something called the Oracle, a biolab, a chemical lab and an energy lab as well as the medical centre. The right split off to a number of generators that provided power for the whole complex and a communications room. Straight on led into another cavernous hall, slightly smaller but equally impressive, and through that hall another long corridor that led to a cross intersection. To the left and right each branched off to another enormous hall, through which were T-sections leading off to two barrack rooms, and straight on led to a double cross intersection off which branched two sparring rings, a firing range and an obstacle course and straight down the middle was the smallest hall yet, used as an armoury by the resident Tenno with a generator on the other end.

Of the entirety of the dojo only one of the barrack rooms, its adjacent hall, the training rooms and the armoury were used with any real frequency, making Tali wonder what the point of it all was. Infuriatingly, the language barrier meant that she couldn't possibly ask.

At that precise moment she was sitting in the armoury with James, being taught how to disassemble a Gremlin. The Gremlin was one of what the Tenno referred to as 'boltkaan', weapons that fired long bolts of metal that were capable of pinning enemies to walls. The boltkaan were definitely short range weapons - their projectiles were slower travelling than other weapons, meaning their accuracy dropped off at long range, but in the close confines of a spacecraft they were brutally effective. The Gremlins were one of the few weapons she was comfortable dual wielding - the weapon was a close range blitzer where weight of fire trumped precision. She hummed to herself as she deftly reassembled the weapon, racking in a magazine and presenting it to James for inspection. The older Tenno nodded approvingly and handed her a Latron, a more challenging proposition but one she tackled with gusto, shucking off the rifle's casing with considerable skill to access the weapon's innards.

Ellen watched her from the doorway for a moment before frowning and heading towards the communication room to talk to the Lotus.

###

Garrus Vakarian checked over his weaponry for the final time, briefly musing on how frustrated the Corpus must be with the Council. He knew he would be mad if someone was mass producing knockoffs of Turian equipment that were far superior to the original. The inclusion of mass effect fields in the Turian version of the Dera plasma rifle increased the projectile speed by a factor of four while reducing the scatter to almost negligible levels. In fact, he had often come across Corpus using the Saeston instead of the Dera.

His weapons ready, he checked over his squadmate, Nyreen Kandros. She was a Turian biotic, her Cabal unit assigned to the Proud Shield and seconded to Garrus's Marine unit. He had ruffled quite a few mandibles when instead of keeping the Cabal unit separate from the rest of the marines he had split them up and assigned a biotic to each squad, his logic being that it was preferable to have robust and versatile units than a number of different squad configurations each of which served a different role. If anyone else had tried it they would have been overruled and ordered to do things the Turian way but a combination of Garrus's natural leadership and Victus's support had allowed the new deployments to stick. Several other dreadnought marine commanders had switched over to what was now known as the Vakarian deployment.

The Proud Shield fired her magnetic clamps, latching onto the disabled Corpus destroyer and pulling it close to the dreadnought's belly as a boarding tube extended, rotary drill head boring through the outer hull and creating a passage from the six hundred metre destroyer to the enormous dreadnought hovering above it like a bird of prey with a small rodent in its grasp. As the hatch in the boarding tube opened, Garrus's powerful hearing was able to pick out the sound of Corpus defenders in the room they had breached, which appeared to be the cargo bay.

"Gravity slam."

The technician by the controls for the boarding tube hit the button with savage enthusiasm, making the entire ship vibrate as the Proud Shield's artificial gravity extended and overwhelmed that of the Corpus destroyer. Inside the target vessel floors suddenly became ceilings, drawing a torrent of Corpus foul language as MOA and crewmen slammed headfirst into what was previously the ceiling, swiftly followed by their equipment.

"Breaching charges."

Someone handed Garrus a detonator as a thoroughly nasty surprise was dropped down the hole. The breaching charge, aka the Slice'n'Dicer, was an oversized grenade that detonated into a sunburst of razor sharp flechettes guaranteed to reduce any Corpus in the room to puddles of blood. Garrus watched the charge as it fell, waiting until it hit the floor before ducking well out of the way and thumbing the detonator. He was rewarded with a fine selection of screams and a number of flechettes embedding themselves in the armoured backstop above the entrance to the boarding tube created specifically to catch any errant blades.

"Pointmen down."

The six pointmen of his breaching unit crouched either side of the tube, quickly checking over their enormous tri-barrelled plasma shotguns before dropping down. The shock absorbers built into their armoured legs absorbed the impact of their landing as they activated their Omnishields on instinct.

"Room clear, Commander."

With a hand signal, high tensile ropes were dropped down the tube and the boarding unit quickly abseiled down, separating into squads.

"Squad Tobestik, engineering. Squad Bartus, labs. Squad Vakarian on me, we'll take the bridge."

Nodding their understanding the three squads split off, moving to take the different sections of the ship as behind them two more squads abseiled down and set about securing the breach area. Usually five squads was more than enough to take a Corpus destroyer.

Garrus led his squad of eight through the ship, pausing every so often to take out small squads of MOA. Each squad consisted of two pointmen, two heavy gunners armed with the Kyston, the Turian made version of the Supra, a biotic specialist, an engineer, a medic and a sniper. Securing the bridge was surprisingly easy, the only resistance of note being a Shockwave MOA that didn't have time for a single stomp before the pointmen had reduced it to scrap.

"Squad Vakarian, bridge secure."

There was a brief pause.

"Squad Bartus, labs secure. No hostages to recover."

"Squad Tobestik, stand by."

Garrus became increasingly anxious as two minutes passed with no report.

"Squad Tobestik, engineering secure. One minor wound."

"Copy."

He switched channel on his comm.

"Command, critical locations secured."

"Copy that, Marine. Move to sweep ship."

"Affirmative."

He switched channels once more.

"Squads Arran, Tamilus, Korolan and Decukhai full sweep. I don't want a single Corpus left alive on this ship when we're done."

He turned his attention back to the three members of the bridge crew that had surrendered when his team had cut down the rest, the rank pips showing them to be two ensigns and the ship's captain. One of the ensigns was quietly weeping, the other one staring defiantly as the captain looked around seemingly in disbelief.

Garrus raised his pistol. He hated doing this, executing prisoners but each and every one of them was a war criminal. He took aim at the weeping ensign, the tears streaming down his face briefly making Garrus pause, consider sparing them. Then he remembered his squad liberating a Corpus civilian internment camp on Illium. The squalor, the disease, the rings where they would strip prisoners of all species and gender naked, torture and rape them then force them to perform unspeakable acts of violence on one another for entertainment.

He pulled the trigger three times.

###

"Lotus."

Ellen looked up at the hologram nervously. When the Lotus made an unscheduled call it was rarely a good thing.

"Tenno Shepard. Is the alien combat ready?"

She bristled at the way the Lotus referred to Tali but said nothing about it.

"Yes, I would say Tali is combat ready. She is familiar with a wide range of firearms and understands basic hand signals and commands."

She didn't add in her concerns for the girl's fragile mental state. The Lotus wasn't interested in that.

"We would like your clan to undertake an extermination on a derelict Grineer galleon we believe to have been taken over by the Infested. The operation won't present much challenge but will be a good way to field test the alien."

"Yes, Lotus. I'll prepare my team immediately."

"Dismissed, Tenno Shepard."

The hologram faded and Ellen frowned behind her helmet as she turned and made her way through the dojo. Briefing the squad through pantomime would be interesting, at least.

###

As Tali ran her fingers over the variety of weapons available to her in the dojo's armoury she briefly wondered if Ellen realised exactly how goofy she looked trying to mime a mission briefing. She had got the gist of it - they were going to fly to a ship and kill everything on board. Simple enough.

Kaidan was being left behind for the mission, something the Volt warframe didn't seem too happy about but accepted. The other four of them were selecting their chosen engines of destruction. Tali picked up the Sobek shotgun she had more or less claimed as her own, checking over the variety of modifications she had crammed into it even as she eyed the pistols, eventually picking out a pair of Gremlins and slinging them on her thighs. For her melee weapon she picked out an Etha, the long two handed blade so sharp it could cleave clean through the solid armour plate of a MOA hull without even slowing down. Looking over to her left, she noticed all three of the others had picked the Kunai throwing knives as their secondary weapon. Not pausing to wonder at the strange choices, she headed toward the shuttles.


	5. Chapter 5

Sergeant Nef Anyo nodded in satisfaction as his men hauled in their latest capture. Tenno were increasingly hard to come by, meaning he had to satisfy his sadism quota with random acts of violence against alien civilians. A shame, in his opinion - rumour had it that nothing in the galaxy hurt more than removing a Tenno's warframe and he so liked inflicting pain.

The Warframe in question was a Banshee model, he believed, at least the ridiculously flared helmet suggested so. He had captured her attempting to infiltrate his cruiser while it was undergoing repairs at the Charon relay and he was very much looking forward to shelling her. It had been a while since he had a Tenno plaything to warm his bed.

His current toy was an Asari, suspended above a grate in the centre of the room to avoid getting her blood on his furniture, hanging by hooks driven into her skin. Asari were dime a dozen and easy to break, meaning they never lasted long in Nef Anyo's private chamber. A good Tenno could last him up to a month.

The Banshee struggled futilely - the drain patch attached to her warframe robbed her of its abilities, abruptly reducing her to a normal human in terms of physical capability. Anyo could already feel himself getting excited as she was strapped to the table, the ring of surgical tools spinning up with an eager whirr as the last of the metal restraints was clamped into place. Retrieving his Prova shock rod from the table by his bed, he shocked his plaything a couple of times, her lack of reaction showing him that she had died some time in the night.

"My toy has expired."

At the touch of a button the grate slid open and the hooks retracted, letting the corpse fall into the ship's waste disposal system as his manservant stepped into the room.

"Sir, do you require a fresh toy?"

He shook his head, looking out into the lab his room overlooked.

"I have my eye on that Tenno. Have a suitable female crewman brought to my chamber at the start of the sleep cycle. Make sure it isn't anyone important, it will probably need repairs afterward."

"Of course, sir."

He turned back to look out at the Tenno strapped to the table. He had a feeling tonight was going to be good.

###

A grate was levered out of the way and an armoured form dropped down, Boltor in hand as she swept the area with her eyes. Seeing no immediate threat, she signalled the rest of her team down. Frost and Ember dropped down either side of her, then Mag brought up the rear. None of them were kitted out for stealth, it being rather pointless when the first Infested they killed would alert the remainder to their presence. She was holding a Boltor, Ember with a Gorgon, Frost with a Hek and Mag with a Sobek. All were solid weapons when dealing with the quick melee swarms of the Infested.

With a sharp hand signal, Nyx waved the team onwards, taking point flanked by the two shotgun wielders with Ember covering them all with her heavy machine gun. The unit was tense, expecting Infested to leap out at them at any moment.

They moved into the first large chamber, Nyx sending them to positions with a couple of hand signals. She could sense the Infested closing in, a gut feeling. She was right. A veritable tidal wave of Chargers poured into the room, approaching across the exposed floor. Mag looked at her anxiously as the baying creatures approached. She made a chopping motion with her hand and the battle started.

Snapping her wrist, Nyx sent a burst of psychic bolts into the crowd as Ember threw a fireball, both of them almost immediately opening up with their rifles. As the horde got closer Frost and Mag joined in, blitzing them with their shotguns, the rapid tapping of Mag's Sobek interspersed by the deeper booming of Frost's Hek. Then the creatures were upon them, Nyx slinging her Boltor in favour of her Orthos, a touch of the stud set into the shaft of the staff making the blades burst into flame as Frost swung his Gram in broad, sweeping strokes. With a thrumming sound, Mag flung her hands in the air, several hapless Chargers suspended in midair only to be imploded as she brought her hands sharply together. Ember slammed her fist into the ground, creating a ring of searing flames around her that set the Infested alight around her as she laid into them with her Zoren axes.

The four Tenno made short work of the Chargers, taking a moment to reload their weapons before moving on to the next room. The threat analysis systems in the Warframes immediately tagged the biggest threats in the room - a trio of Ancients that slowly approached amidst a swarm of Chargers, Leapers and Crawlers. Frost, Nyx and Ember all slung their main weapons and switched to their throwing knives as Mag clutched her Sobek nervously.

Moving in smooth synchronisation, the three veteran Tenno unleashed a storm of flying blades at the approaching ancients. Mag was very, very surprised when the tiny slivers of metal cut through the enormous monsters like they weren't even there.

The Ancients quickly felled, the Tenno moved on, splitting two and two to sweep the ship. Mag and Nyx headed down the passageway that led to the engine room, intending to head down to the bottom of the ship and clear upwards, crushing the Infested between them and the other two. Nyx walked with her Boltor at the ready, Mag hanging slightly behind. They blew through a couple of swarms of Infested, Mag watching the life sign counter dropping in her HUD as they cut through the creatures with consummate ease. Despite herself, Mag found herself having fun.

###

The Corpus battleship sat in space, motionless as the Proud Shield of Palaven came close, boarding tube latching on. The two vessels were about the same size, each one just over four kilometres in length, the main difference between the two being that the Proud Shield wasn't disabled and surrounded by hostile ships, unlike the Corpus vessel.

Ignoring the red stains smeared across the walls, Garrus led his squad into the ship's jail. To his great surprise he saw a strange armoured creature strapped to a Corpus 'surgical' table, struggling against the restraints.

"Get her out of there. Check the rest of the cells."

He tugged away the restraints on the armoured woman's right leg, idly noting the strangeness of her armour. It was a dark blue in coloration with pale grey highlights, reminding him somewhat of his old C-sec armour. Almost as soon as the woman was free she slid off the table, backing away as she tore a Corpus device off her chest.

"Hey. Hey, I'm not going to hurt you. Are you okay?"

In response she hissed angrily, smashing open a storage locker with her fist and withdrawing a set of weapons that she attached to her armour, all the while looking at him suspiciously. He held out his hands in a placating gesture, then on a hunch tried speaking the halting, broken Corpus he had picked up.

"Are you hurt?"

He had no hope of deciphering the torrent of words that followed. Apparently the woman realised that so she slowed down.

"No. Who are you?"

He pointed to himself.

"Garrus."

After a moment she gestured to herself.

"Banshee."

There was a sudden thump, making his men spin around as the doors went into lockdown. A single MOA unit appeared, its weapon swivelling as its black shelled legs flexed. Garrus raised his weapon almost contemptuously. When he fired the MOA wasn't there. He heard Banshee scream a single word.

"Ambulas!"

Then all hell broke loose.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Etha = Ether Sword

###

Mag had just blasted the last of the Infested into pieces when the air around the four Tenno started to darken, faint ripples of blackness emanating from a spot on a nearby gantry. The other three Tenno gripped their weapons, aiming them at the gantry. Confused, Mag followed suit.

A figure appeared. Like a Tenno, he was armoured all in black and carried what looked like a bow across his back. As soon as he materialised the Tenno filled the air with bullets but by the time they reached his position he was gone.

A red dart arced out of nowhere, striking Ember in the chest. Red lightening crackled across her as she sank to her knees, weapons falling out of her fingers, seemingly paralysed. Frost quickly followed, loosing two blasts from his Hek before another paralytic dart hit him in the chest. Grunting, he fell to his knees, frozen in place as the mysterious black Tenno melted into the shadows once again. Another dart lanced out, Nyx the next to fall, then Mag felt a crackling of electricity before her muscles went terrifyingly numb.

The black Tenno stalked towards the four paralysed warriors, stopping in front of Ember. His motions reminding Mag of a true sadist, he stroked an armoured glove down her body from cheek to thigh before pulling a strange golden object from his armour and pressing it to her forehead, making her disappear in a flash of multicoloured light. The next one he approached was Mag. As his hand started to stroke down her side, making her flesh crawl, she twitched a single finger. Then he pulled out the object, bringing it towards her forehead.

Through a supreme force of will she snapped her hand up, wrenching the object out of her assailant's grip as she kicked him away with her powerful double-kneed leg. He stumbled and she reached back, drawing her Etha and plunging it into his chest until the blade erupted from his back, running her attacker through. He futilely clutched at his chest as she yanked her sword out, spinning on the ball of her foot and decapitating the mysterious Tenno in a single stroke.

The last thing Nyx saw before she passed out was Mag picking her up, carrying her bridal style to the extraction point.

###

Ellen opened her eyes, blinking away the buildup of moisture as she sat up groggily. Looking around, she realised she was in the dojo's medbay. James was slumped on the opposite bed and Tali was snoozing in a chair opposite. Kaidan hurried over to her, concerned.

"Ellen, are you okay?"

"Been better. Report."

He frowned for a moment, then complied.

"You were attacked by the Stalker. He hit the whole team with Despair darts but because her physiology is non-human they didn't fully paralyse her. She lopped off the Stalker's head and took his void key."

There was a brief pause as he looked down.

"But not before he took Ash."

"Dammit! Wait ... You say Tali took his void key?"

"Correct."

She cracked her knuckles.

"Time we went and got Ash back then."

###

Garrus cursed as another one of his men was yanked off his feet by the strange black-hulled MOA, then pulverised by a skull-shattering kick. The mysterious woman calling herself Banshee rolled over and nocked another arrow, loosing it at the mech and spearing through a knee joint. He joined in with his sniper rifle, sending bullets at the bizarre MOA's knee joints. It had taken his team two minutes and three men to drop that thing's shields, and thus far his squad was down 50 per cent.

"Goddamnit won't this thing just die!"

Banshee loosed another arrow, the shaft sticking out of the mech's sensory unit. Garrus was briefly taken aback as the arrow exploded, making the mech stagger back. Roaring, he poured fire into it along with his men. Something sparked inside it, then exploded.

Pieces of Ambulas rained around the room and Banshee instantly took off. Garrus swore and started sprinting after her.

"Kandros, on me!"

Nyreen sprinted after him as the rest of the squad set about securing the area. As he ran he called after her.

"Wait! I need to talk to you!"

She dove into a pod that was hanging off the wall. Cursing, Garrus and Nyreen leaped after her.

They somehow emerged into a small personal shuttle. Banshee tapped something into her console and Garrus gaped in amazement as a spirits-be-damned wormhole appeared in the viewscreen.

Then he saw an armoured foot flying at his face.

###

"Tenno. We have recovered the Stalker's void key."

Ellen squeezed Tali's elbow reassuringly.

"Your clan has been selected to mount an assault on the Stalker's base of operations. You are to infiltrate, recon and report back. We have no idea who or what the Stalker is. This is a rare opportunity. Failure is not an option."

The hologram of the Lotus disappeared. Ellen blinked and looked around the dojo.

"Arm up."


End file.
